Tim Taylor was president and founder of RV Tiburon Inc. whose clients included: private organizations, oil and gas corporations, universities and the military. He is also a renowned ocean explorer with over thirty years of business acumen working within the marine and exploration industry. His work with innovative diving and undersea technology has yielded ground breaking underwater research and discoveries.

Tim has collaborated on various projects of scientific significance in the fields of conservation, oceanography, archaeology, biology and geology with Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Eugenia Clark, National Geographic, NOVA and many other notable names within the maritime community. His business and exploration projects have included high profile, documented expeditions and discoveries. Tim managed budgets ranging from one million to twenty million dollars, and from 2014 - 2018 Tim personally invested and directed an international test market program renting AUV's. This entrepreneurial, technology driven endeavor proved to be successful and scalable.

Tim's recent achievements include managing a large scale, multiyear, twenty-five-million-dollar project deploying deep water autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV's) around the world. He exhibits skills, leadership and vision that contributes towards achieving his company goals and success. Tim is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and in 2008 was awarded the club’s prestigious Citation of Merit Medal in recognition of his contributions. He has been profiled in the London Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg News and appears on FOX, CNBC, BBC, CBC and CNN as an ocean technology and robotics expert.

Ludmil Andreani Pandeff is co-founder, president, and a director of Axa Solutions, Inc. an investment holding company. He is also co-founder, president, and chairman of Astea Solutions AD, and chairman of Haemimont AD. Astea and Haemimont provide data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and custom software development services to clients worldwide. He is also a trustee of the Haemimont Foundation, which supports academic and cultural initiatives in the Balkans. Ludmil brings more than 30 years of experience as a software entrepreneur with a focus on education, healthcare, and publishing, and in the formation of joint ventures between European, Latin American, and United States companies.

​Christine Dennison is a native New Yorker who started her career in business management with Laura Ashley, USA. She was a Director of a prominent NYC Art Gallery working with high net worth clients overseeing operations and public relations. Christine is the founder and President of Mad Dog Expeditions, an international adventure and exploration company that pioneered underwater diving and exploration of the Canadian High Arctic and Brazil's Rio Negro. She developed business relationships with high profile clients that included Casio G-Shock, Dentsu Advertising Agency and SKYPE, working with international licensing and advertising campaigns . Her company developed training programs after 9/11 in technical underwater operations for the FBI and the NYPD.

Christine is a seasoned expedition leader who excels in man management in the field and in the corporate world. Her exploration credentials have placed her in the record books as being the First Woman to explore and scuba dive the Arctic waters of the NorthWest Passage and the first woman to explore the regions and waters of the Rio Negro in Brazil. She has over 20 years of planning and execution of global projects, operations, logistics and budgets. Christine has worked with clients Firmenich, Hearst Corporation, Pepsico and others on team building and leadership presentations for executive management and is an on air expert for media and TV that includes CNN, BBC, ITN, SKY TV, GLOBO,and more. She is honored as a Fellow in The Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society of London, has been awarded the Medal of Honor by the Brazilian Navy League and Honorary Submariner by the Brazilian Navy for her work and research in the discovery of the WWII US Submarine R-12 . Christine maintains a strong business network both in the US and Intenationally.

William Ciraco graduated from Brown University with a degree in Business Economics. He began his career in finance in the Fixed Income Investment Management group Alliance Capital. From there he moved to Bear Stearns during the mid 1990’s where he worked in Equity Capital Markets, including a rotation with Bear Stearns Proprietary Risk Arbitrage Trading Desk. After three years at Bear Stearns Bill moved to the customer side of the investment business, initially as the Head Arbitrage Trader for Tiedemann Investment Group (formerly Tiedemann Boltres Partners.) In 1998 Bill was hired as the Head Trader for Para Advisors, a multi-strategy investment fund which at its peak managed $1.1 billion of capital in public equities, debt, options, currencies and derivatives as well as number of private investments. Bill was responsible for all trading activities both domestically and internationally, as well as risk management and overall investment strategy reporting directly to the company’s president. Bill spent 15 years at Para Advisors, becoming a partner in 2008. Through two decades as a professional investor Bill has held numerous investments in Energy (Oil & Gas Production, Exploration, Energy Services, Refining.) Other industries of focus include Chemicals, Construction and Engineering, Military/Defense, LNG Shipping, Dry Bulk Shipping, Mining and Materials and all hard and soft commodities. Through these experiences Bill has developed a wide understanding of these sectors as well as a healthy rolodex of industry players and investors.

Jacob Shakarchy's areas of concentration are corporate law andadvising entrepreneurs in commercial and corporate transactions, and all aspects of real estate finance, acquisition and development, and corporate tax planning. He is admitted to practice in New York. Jack attended the Tehran Community International School before commencing his college education in the United States. He graduated summa cum laude from The American University in Washington, D.C. Jack then attended Georgetown University Law School and the New York University School of Law where he obtained respectively his J.D. and L.L.M. degrees in Taxation. He worked with Kaplan Livingston Goodwin Berkowitz and with Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg & Casey, in the corporate law, tax and real estate departments.

Robert "RB" Havens has more than 30 years of engineering and project management experience in marine and industrial environments ranging from waste to energy power plants to state of the art marine robotics. This diverse background has allowed him to become proficient in multiple engineering disciplines including steam electrical power systems, hydraulic controls, steel and alloy fabrication, marine and industrial electrical power generation and distribution systems, ship propulsion systems, ship/robotics navigation systems and fully integrated computer control systems.

Over the years RB has been responsible for team management of up to 100 employees and tens of millions of dollars in annual operational, contractual and capital project budgets. During the last ten years RB has logged thousands of hours as the Lead Operator and Maintenance Technician of offshore and inshore geophysics, inspection and search and recovery projects utilizing ROVs and AUVs.

Robert Miller began his professional career as an attorney and later moved on to help companies in a variety of roles at the request of venture funds. He’s served in various executive roles and on Boards of Directors of hardware, software, healthcare, oil and gas, and financial services companies. Robert also founded a real property information company later sold to First American Title Company. He has assumed various executive roles and has served on Boards of Directors of hardware, software, healthcare, oil and gas, and financial services companies.

Robert was most recently the CEO and President of Syndio Solutions, an HR Tech company focused on helping organizations determine if they are in compliance with various equal pay for equal work laws. He graduated from UC Berkeley and earned a law degree from Loyola Marymount University.

​​​​Andy Taylor is a retired US Air Force Lt Colonel with over 28 years of experience in military operations and logistics, training development and execution, contract management, budget analysis, information, video technologies and simulator management. Andy is a combat decorated veteran, having flown combat missions in Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, as well as Noble Eagle Combat Air Patrol missions over Washington, DC and New York City. Throughout his career he was extensively involved in military training operations and development, operational deployments of aircraft and equipment to remote locations, and logistical standup and technical support of field level operations. Andy’s post military career has continued to build upon his military experience. As a contractor in the defense industry, he has been involved in the budgeting, contracting, acquiring, testing, integration and fielding of advanced equipment for multiple combat aircraft, including airborne Targeting Pods. He served as Information Technical Lead and managed the logistics and planning of launching, recovering and analysis of sonar operations for the AUV systems operation development team that was responsible for mapping 1800 square miles of ocean bottom in over 1500 meter. Andy comes to us from Infinite Technologies where as a Senior Program Manager and Training Consultant he was involved in software development, training and operational use of software designed for the Air Force, supporting over 3000 users, in managing sustainment requirements for all Air Force weapons systems totaling more than 18 Billion dollars a year. He has been instrumental in the standardization and development of over 75 courses supporting software processes and functionality using industry tools. Andy’s extensive experience dealing with training, logistics and operations brings to the team proven leadership for our world-wide operations and training development.

Advisors

Kevin McCarthy's entire career has been devoted to pursuing ocean related endeavors, first as a professional diver, followed by various senior level management positions at a number of oceanographic manufacturing companies, including Klein Associates and Teledyne Benthos. He holds a B.S. from Northeastern University and an M.B.A. from Suffolk University. In 2000 he joined Hydroid LLC, a startup subsea robotics company that was founded to commercialize the REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle technologies developed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In 2008 the company was acquired by Kongsberg Maritime.

Kevin has spent most of his 25-year career working for oceanographic instrumentation companies. Throughout his career he has been involved in business development and the domestic and international marketing of high technology products designed for a range of underwater applications. He has marketed side scan sonars electronic imaging systems, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), and most recently AUVs. Kevin has been employed by leaders in the ocean industry, including Klein Associates in Salem, New Hampshire and Benthos in North Falmouth, Massachusetts. Kevin retired from his position of Vice President Marketing in 2010 to devote more time to his passion for wildlife photography